Instrument Game System and Method

ABSTRACT

A game system and method that uses an instrument as an input encourages a user to play along with the game&#39;s soundtrack on an instrument (e.g. guitar, bass, etc.). The game cues the player to play notes and/or chords on the instrument at an appropriate time and then data is collected from the instrument via a connection between the instrument and the apparatus running the game. The game then scores the user based on note/chord and timing information it receives.

PRIORITY CLAIM

This application claims priority under 35 USC 119(e) and 120 to U.S.Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/902,066 filed on Feb. 20,2007 entitled “A Music Video Game with Stringed Instrument Input” whichis incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD

A system and method for game playing is described. In more detail, asystem and method for using an instrument as an input to a game and thegame with the instrument input is disclosed.

BACKGROUND

Video games generally are well known. In addition, video games andgaming system with music type games are also known. The game systems maybe both personal computer/gaming console (Microsoft® Xbox® or Sony® PlayStation2®) or stand-alone gaming consoles such as might be in an arcade.Examples of these types of games include Dance, Dance Revolution inwhich a user attempts to follow a dance routine set to music and isscored based on the accuracy of the user's dance routine to theexemplary dance routine and Guitar Hero in which the user has acontroller (that looks like a guitar), plays along with a song and isscored based on how closely the user can play the song as compared tothe exemplary song. It is desirable to provide a game system and methodin which an instrument is the input controller to the game system and itis to this end that the present invention is directed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A illustrates an example of an implementation of a game system;

FIG. 1B illustrates an example of a user interface of a stringedinstrument example of the game system;

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a user interface of a stringedinstrument example of the game system;

FIGS. 3A and 3B illustrate examples of the user interface of a notemoving toward the play area of the stringed instrument example of thegame system;

FIG. 3C illustrates another example of the user interface of FIG. 1B;

FIGS. 4A and 4B illustrate an example of a hit event and a miss event ofthe stringed instrument example of the game system;

FIG. 5 illustrate an example of the string, fret and time variables ofthe stringed instrument example of the game system;

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of an action indicator interface of thestringed instrument example of the game system;

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of another action indicator interface ofthe stringed instrument example of the game system;

FIG. 8 illustrates yet another example of an action indicator interfaceof the stringed instrument example of the game system;

FIG. 9 illustrates yet another example of an action indicator interfaceof the stringed instrument example of the game system;

FIG. 10 illustrates an example of a performance meter user interface ofthe stringed instrument example of the game system;

FIG. 11 illustrates a method for scoring notes in the stringedinstrument example of the game system;

FIGS. 12A and 12B illustrate a hit scoring event and a miss scoringevent of the stringed instrument example of the game system;

FIG. 13 illustrates an example of a method for scoring the notes of thestringed instrument example of the game system;

FIG. 14 illustrates an example of the stringed instrument example of thegame system in which several time windows are used to score a note;

FIG. 15 illustrates an example of the user interface for selecting alevel of difficulty of the stringed instrument example of the gamesystem;

FIG. 16 illustrates examples of a sequence of notes with differentdifficulty levels in the stringed instrument example of the game system;

FIG. 17 illustrates examples of another sequence of notes with differentdifficulty levels in the stringed instrument example of the game system;

FIG. 18 illustrates an example of an arrangement of a musicalarrangement of the stringed instrument example of the game system;

FIG. 19 illustrates an example of a menu in the stringed instrumentexample of the game system;

FIG. 20 illustrates an example of a select arrangement user interface ofthe stringed instrument example of the game system;

FIGS. 21A and 21B illustrate an audio and video selection user interfaceof the game system;

FIG. 22 illustrates a sound input device and gain user interface of thegame system;

FIG. 23 illustrates an example of a hardware implementation of a videogame system that incorporates the stringed instrument example of thegame system; and

FIG. 24 illustrates further details of an analysis module of theexemplary embodiment of the game system shown in FIG. 1A.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF ONE OR MORE EMBODIMENTS

The game system and method are particularly applicable to a personalcomputer based, guitar based game system and method with the exemplaryuser interface described below and it is in this context that the systemand method will be described. It will be appreciated, however, that thesystem and method has greater utility because: 1) the game system can beimplemented with other musical or melodic instruments, such as anymelodic instrument including, for example, a bass, violin, banjo, piano,voice, clarinet, steel drums, etc.; 2) it can be implemented on othergaming apparatus, such as gaming consoles or stand-alone gaming units(such as the Microsoft® Xbox® system, the Sony® PlayStation®, Nintendo®Wii®, etc.); 3) it can be implemented in peer-to-peer, ASP model,client/server architectures or as an Internet game; and 4) it can beimplemented using other user interfaces and features that are notspecifically described below in the exemplary embodiments which areprovided to illustrate the game system and method. Now, an example of animplementation of the game system to illustrate the functions andprinciples is described in more detail.

FIG. 1A illustrates an example of an implementation of a game system 80where the game system is implemented as a software based stand-alonesystem. The system 80 may include a game unit 81, such as a cabinet orstand-alone unit, and an instrument 82, such as any musical or melodicinstruments including, for example, a bass, violin, banjo, piano, voice,clarinet, steel drums, etc., that is used as an input to the game unit81 via an interface 82 a such as a USB cable, amplifier cord withadapter for computer sound card, networking cable carrying musical datainformation, a microphone, etc. The game unit may include a display 83that is capable of displaying the user interface of the game to the user(an example of which is described below in more detail with reference toFIG. 1B), one or more processing units 84, a storage unit 86 (that maybe a combination of a persistent storage device such as a hard diskdrive, ROM, etc.), and a memory such as SRAM or DRAM, and an operatingsystem 88 that controls the operation of the game system and a gamemodule 90 that reside in the storage unit. The game module, in thisembodiment, may be a plurality of lines of computer code. In otherembodiments, the game module may also be implemented in hardware or acombination of hardware and software. The game module may includemodules for game administration (level difficulty functions), musicalinstrument interface and game scoring. When the game system is active,the game module is loaded into the memory and then executed by the oneor more processing units to implement the functions and operations ofthe game system described in more detail below. The game system permitsa user to play an instrument along with an arrangement displayed on thedisplay (use the instrument as an input to the game system using theinterface) and then scores the user based on the accuracy with which theuser plays the arrangement shown on the display as described in moredetail below.

FIG. 1B illustrates an example of a user interface 100 of a stringedinstrument example of the game system. The example of the user interfaceis for illustration purposes only and the game system may use other userinterfaces and the game system is not limited to any particular userinterface design. The example user interface may include a backgroundgraphics 102 that may consist of an number of images or a virtualenvironment and may be two dimensional or three dimensional. An exampleof a two dimensional background graphic with a single image (i.e.wallpaper) or a series of images (i.e. a movie, animation, music video,etc.) is shown in FIG. 1B. FIG. 2 shows another embodiment of a userinterface 200 that is three dimensional and may include an animatedcharacter or characters 202 possibly playing a virtual instrument 204and surrounded by virtual props 206 (audio equipment, stage, audience,etc.).

Returning to FIG. 1B, the exemplary user interface may further includean action indicator interface 104 that may include a note field 106, oneor more notes 108 superimposed on top of the note field 106 and a playarea 110. In one embodiment of the game system, the horizontal positionof a note in the action indicator interface 104 indicates the time toplay the note (cue time), the vertical position of the note indicatesthe string to play it on (cue string), and the number inside each noteindicates the fret that is to be pressed down (cue fret) on the stringto generate the correct pitch. In the one embodiment, the one or morenotes 108 move horizontally towards the play area 110 and the play area110 is stationary. FIGS. 3A and 3B show this horizontal motion of thenotes relative to the play area 110 with FIG. 3A is at an earlier timethan FIG. 3B. In the game system, the action indicator interface 104cues the user to play the appropriate note at a specific time. When theoverlap of the note and the play area occur, the user is to play theappropriate note.

FIG. 3C illustrates the expected user response to the action indicatorinterface 104. The top row of the user interface corresponds to the userplaying the bottom string on a guitar (cue string). The number insidethe note corresponds to the user holding down a particular fret of aguitar, such as the 2^(nd) fret, with his/her finger (cue fret). Theoverlap of the note with the play area indicate that the user shouldplay the cue string with the cued fret pressed at that instance (cuetime), therefore producing a note that would match the arrangement noteif played correctly and played at the correct time.

If the user plays the cued note at the cued time, a “Hit” is awarded. Ifthe user does not play the cued note, or waits too long to play the cuednote, a “Miss” is awarded. FIGS. 4A and 4B shows a hit event (when theuser plays the correct note at the correct time) and a miss event (whenthe user fails to play the correct note at the correct time),respectively. In some embodiments of the game system, if the note isjudged as a “Hit”, the note graphical symbol may change its appearance(i.e. glow, explode, turn bright color, etc.), otherwise, if the note isjudged as a “Miss”, the graphical symbol for the notes may change itsappearance differently (i.e. fade out, shrink, turn dark color, etc.).

In some embodiments of the game system, the user interface 100 shown inFIG. 1B may show different size and/or length notes 108 wherein the sizeand/or length of a note shows the player how long to hold the note withnote 108 illustrating a “short note” and note 109 illustrating a “longnote”.

In some embodiments of the game system, a note 111 may take on a specialcharacteristic (i.e. glowing star, blinking, moving in a wavy path) fromother notes in the note field 106 and may be “hit” by the user (playedcorrectly) for an additional score or otherwise enhance the player'sin-game status. In some embodiments, the judgment of the last playednote is displayed on-screen in a textual format 113 for the player toreceive immediate feedback of the played note. The judgment 113 may read“Great”, “Good”, “Fair”, “Poor”, “Miss”, etc.

The action indicator interface 104 of the game system may be modified invarious ways in other embodiments of the game system. For example, eachnote 108 (shown as a circle in the example in FIG. 1B) may use othergraphical representation (i.e. squares, stars, arrows, etc.)

As another example, the horizontal position of the note indicating thetime to play it (cue time), the vertical position indicating the stringto play it on (cue string), and the number inside the note indicatingthe fret that is to be pressed down (cue fret) on the string to generatethe correct pitch is an example of the user interface that may be usedto cue the stringed musical instrument play and the variables that cuethe play (which string, which fret, and what time), may be arrangedspatially (horizontally spaced, vertically spaced, depth-wise spaced)and demarcated by notation (using numbers, letters, colors, shapes, etc)and may have many permutations as shown in FIG. 5. Examples of thesedifferent user interfaces are shown in FIGS. 6-9. FIG. 6 shows anembodiment of the action indicator interface 104 with a note field 602,one or more notes 604, and a play area 606 wherein the horizontalposition of the note indicates the cue time, the vertical position ofthe note represents the cue fret, and the number inside the noterepresents the cue string. FIG. 7 shows another embodiment of the actionindicator interface 104 with a note field 702, one or more notes 704,and a play area 706 wherein the depth-wise position of the noteindicates the cue time, the horizontal position indicates cue string,and the numbers inside the notes represent the cue fret. FIG. 8 showsanother embodiment of the Action Indicator Interface 100 with a notefield 802 and one or more notes 804 in which the horizontal positionrepresents cue fret, the vertical position represents cue string, andthe numbers inside the notes represent the cue time (i.e. the number ofseconds to wait before playing the appropriate string/fret combination).Finally, FIG. 9 shows another embodiment of the action indicatorinterface 104 with a note field 902, one or more notes 904, and a playarea 906 in which the horizontal position represents the cue fret, thedepth-wise position represents the cue string, and the vertical positionrepresents the cue time (i.e. when to play the note depends on how fastthe note falls and the string/fret combination cued by where the notefalls in the play area). Any of the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1-9 maybe further modified by using unique colors, characters, or shapesinstead of numbers to cue the appropriate string/note/time. Forinstance, the six colors of red, green, blue, cyan, yellow, and magentacan be used to demarcate the cue string on a 6 string guitar. Also, forinstance, the characters of the note may be used to demarcate the cuenote (i.e. “C#”, “D”, “B flat”, etc.) In addition to spacing along thetraditional axis (i.e. horizontal, vertical, depth-wise), additionalembodiments may space along non-traditional axes (i.e. diagonal).Additionally, there is no requirement that any or all axes be orthogonal(i.e. two axes may be parallel, near parallel, or otherwise not angledat 90 degrees).

The game system user interface may also include, in some embodiments, aperformance feedback interface and several components of the userinterface 100 may loosely define a mechanism for a player to receivefeedback on their performance in the game. In some embodiments, the userinterface 100 may include a score window 112 or other graphic that isused to present the player's current score during their performance. Insome embodiments, a performance meter 114 may also be used to presentthe player's current performance which is a measure of the number of hitnotes and missed notes and, if the player's performance falls below apredetermined level, the game may end. FIG. 10 shows alternativeembodiments of performance meters. In some embodiments, the performancemeter is a bar graph filled or unfilled with colors or patterns based onthe player's performance, shown by 1000/1002 in FIG. 10. In someembodiments, the performance meter resembles an analog meter, where theneedle moves up and down to indicate the player's performance, shown by1004 in FIG. 10.

The user interface 100 of the game system in some embodiments mayfurther comprise a chord track 116 that may be, for example, locatedabove the note field 106. During game play, chord information appears inthe chord track 116 and scrolls from right to left towards thatstationary play area 110. Each piece of chord data lines up with acorresponding note(s) 108 in the note field 106 to show the associationbetween the two.

The user interface 100 of the game system in some embodiments mayfurther comprise a signal feedback interface wherein several componentsin the user interface 100 loosely define a mechanism for the player toreceive the quality and power of the instrument signal being fed intothe game. In some embodiments, a volume meter 118 shows the total volumeof the player's instrument during instrument play. In some embodiments,a signal plot 120 shows a plot of the power of the player's signal vs.the note so that the signal plot will show peaks at the tone(s) theplayer is playing.

The user interface 100 of the game system in some embodiments mayfurther comprise a combo feedback interface wherein several componentsin the user interface 100 loosely define a mechanism for the player toreceive information on the number of correctly played notes that havebeen “hit” in a row (i.e. a combo of correct notes). In someembodiments, textual information 122 displays the current combo number.In some embodiments, a combo bar 124 is used, containing a graphicalrepresentation of the number of combo notes played together 126, as wellas a display of a score multiplier 128 gained because of successfulcombos.

FIG. 11 illustrates a method for scoring notes in the stringedinstrument example of the game system. If the player plays thearrangement note within the time window allotted around the cued time,the arrangement note is scored as a “Hit” (1102). If the wrong note isplayed (1104), or the arrangement note is played but not within the timewindow (1106), no judgment is given. Therefore, it is possible for theplayer to play several wrong notes but still receive a “Hit” afterfinally playing the correct arrangement note. If the arrangement note isnever played, then a “Miss” is scored.

FIGS. 12A and 12B illustrate a “hit” scoring event and a “miss” scoringevent, respectively. As shown in FIG. 12A, the arrangement note “G” hasbeen cued (1202) accompanied by a time window that is shown (1204). A“Hit” is scored in FIG. 12A because the performance by the user containsthe note “G” (1206) within the time window (1204). In FIG. 12B, thearrangement note “G” has also been cued (1208) with a time window(1210). However, a “Miss” is scored in FIG. 12B because no note “G” isplayed in the user performance in the time window. Generally, the liveinstrument performance of the player will be a continuous signal (withpitches) that therefore is converted in a known manner into notes withtime tags so that the game system is able to compare the notes of thearrangement with the notes of the live instrument performance. Toaccomplish this conversion, the system (such as the analysis moduledescribed with reference to FIG. 24 below) may determine the periodicitycomponent of the pitch so that the periodicity component can beconverted into a frequency which can then be converted into a note.

FIG. 13 shows which of the performance notes by the user (1302) will bejudged/scored if the player plays multiple arrangement notes within thetime window. For example, a note “G” in the arrangement has been cued(1304) accompanied by a time window (1306). The player has played “G”twice within the time window (1306), at time 1308 and time 1310.However, time 1308 is closer in time to the arrangement note 1304 and istherefore the one selected for scoring.

In some embodiments, there may be several time windows associated withan arrangement note 1402 as shown in FIG. 14 wherein four different timewindows are shown. Each time window allows the player a greater timetolerance for playing the correct arrangement note. In some embodiments,the scoring may be done by giving higher scores to the user performancenotes that are in the smaller time windows. For instance, 1404, 1406,1408, and 1410, may be judged as “Great”, “Good”, “Fair”, and “Poor” andbe given a score 4, 3, 2, and 1 respectively. Also, there is norequirement that the time window be symmetrical, as more of a window canbe given after the exact cued time 1402 that before it, or vice versa.

In some embodiments, the scoring of notes can be done independent of theoctave of the note so that notes played that are one of more octaveshigher or lower than the cued note will still be scored positively (i.e.a “Hit”). In these embodiments, the note of the live instrumentperformance data point is adjusted by one or more octaves so that theadjusted note is then compared to the arrangement note. Then, the liveinstrument performance is scored positively if the adjusted note isequal to the arrangement note and the live musical performance is notscored if the adjusted note does not match the arrangement note.

The game system may include a level scoring module. In the game, eachlevel is scored based on the number of “Hits” vs. “Misses” awarded tothe player. In embodiments with multiple time windows, “Hits” would besubdivided further into “Great”, “Good”, “Fair”, “Poor”, etc. In someembodiments, scoring for a level is done by the multiplying the numberof judged notes by multipliers assigned for each rating (i.e. Miss-0,Poor-1, Fair-2, Good-3, Great-4). In some embodiments, a score above acertain amount will unlock one or more unlocked items (i.e. a song, anew character, a new character outfit or guitar, etc.). In someembodiments, a score below a certain amount will “fail” the player andthus not allow the player to progress to the next level.

The game system may also adjust the difficulty of each level of thegame. For example, as shown in FIG. 15, the same song may be played withseveral different level difficulties using a select difficulty screen1500.

In the game system, different arrangements of musical pieces can be usedto give more difficult and challenging experiences of playing the samemusical piece, as shown by FIG. 16. The piece shown, “Mary Had a LittleLamb”, has its rhythmic components shown by 1602. An “Easy” arrangementof the piece 1604 may be composed by cueing only every 4^(th) note. Anarrangement more difficult than the Easy arrangement, denoted as“Normal” 1606, cues only every 2 note. An arrangement more difficultthan Normal, denoted as “Hard” 1608, cues the player to play every notein the melody. An arrangement more difficult than Hard, denoted as“Expert” 1610, cues the player to add grace notes 1612 and other extranote runs 1614 to the original musical piece. Furthermore, when thedifficulty of an arrangement is made more difficult, the time window foreach note may be made smaller than the time window for the note duringan easier version of the arrangement.

An alternate arrangement technique is illustrated in FIG. 17. The pieceshown, “Mary Had a Little Lamb”, has its rhythmic components shown by1702. An “Easy” arrangement of the piece 1704 may be composed by cueingevery note in the melody. An arrangement more difficult than Easy,denoted as “Normal” 1706, cues additional harmonies to be played onother strings in synchronization with the original melody. Anarrangement more difficult than Normal, denoted as “Hard” 1708, cueseven more additional harmonies to be played on other strings insynchronization with the original melody. In this way, the difficulty ofany arrangement can be adjusted by the game system.

In addition, arrangement of songs do not have to follow the traditionalmelodies as shown in FIG. 18. In particular, arrangements may bedesigned where musical theory fundamentals (i.e. scales, chords,arpeggios, etc.) are cued instead. The piece shown, “Mary Had a LittleLamb”, has its rhythmic components shown by 1802. While the melody isshown in 1804, an equally valid series of notes consist of a major scale1806 in the same key as the musical selection. In some embodiments, moredifficult arrangements of musical pieces contain a more difficult seriesof notes to be played together in sequence (i.e. guitar riffs).

FIG. 19 illustrates an example of a progression of menu screens in thestringed instrument example of the game system wherein 1902 shows anon-interactive progression of screens, which may include a splashscreen 1904 that displays the game developer's logo, a logo screen 1906that displays the game logo, a demonstration screen 1908 that shows thegame being autoplayed or played by a computer, and a list of high scores1910. The user is taken to the interactive progression of screens 1912after the user interacts with the game (i.e. presses Enter on thekeyboard). The main menu 1914 lists available options. The selectdifficulty screen 1916 allow the player to select their desired songdifficulty (FIG. 15). The select music screen allows the player toselect a song to play (FIG. 20). The game play screen 1920 is the maingame screen (FIG. 1B), which may be paused and then resumed. After gameplay, the player is taken to an evaluation screen 1922 to review theirperformance. From the main menu 1914, the player may select the setupinstrument screen 1924 to tune their instrument and set up anappropriate sound input device and signal gain (FIG. 22). Also from themain menu 1914, the user may select other options 1926, which will givethem the ability to adjust video options 1928 (fullscreen or windowedgame, screen resolution, etc.) (FIG. 21 b) or audio options 1930 (musicvolume, sound effects volume, etc.) (FIG. 21 a).

FIG. 23 illustrates an example of a hardware implementation of a videogame system that incorporates the stringed instrument example of thegame system. The game system may include a system bus 2302, a ROM 2306that holds the operating system and a memory 2308 (such as a RAM) thatholds the game program 2309. The game system may also include anexternal storage 2310 that can either be a computer's hard drive, anoptical disk, or a flash memory drive, etc. The game system also has asound module 2312 that connects to the speaker 2314 and a video module2316 that processes graphics and connects the display 2318, which can bea computer monitor, TV, or arcade screen. The game system may also havea peripheral input 2320 that takes input from the user's keyboard,mouse, buttoned game controllers, racing wheels, etc and a sound input2322 that takes input from the user's musical instrument and can be aUSB cable, microphone, amplifier cord with adapter for computer soundcard, networking cable carrying musical data information, etc. The gamesystem may also have a network interface 2324 that takes data in andsends data out over a network for networked play and it can send orreceive game data (player profiles, “Hits”, “Misses”, etc.), sound data(from a musical instrument), or music data (i.e. .mp3 or .ogg data froma music file).

FIG. 24 illustrates further details of an analysis module 2400 that ispart of the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 1A. The analysis modulemay receive an instrument input that is fed into a processing unit 2401,such as a digital signal processing unit (DSP), that detects one or morenotes (and a time tag for each note) in the live instrument input usingknown pitch conversion and note detection processes (described above)programmed into the DSP. The note and time tag information may be fedinto a compare module 2402 (implemented as one or more lines of computercode in one embodiment) that queries the arrangement storage at aparticular time period and then compares the live performance notes andtime tags to a set of arrangement performance notes and time tags thatmay be stored in a buffer 2403 as shown. The comparison may be done bydetermining if the notes match and, if the notes match, then finding thelive instrument note with the smallest time error. The compare modulethen may output a time error to a score module 2404 (implemented as oneor more lines of computer code in one embodiment) that generates scoredata which is output to the player and also output to a performancemodule 2405 (implemented as one or more lines of computer code in oneembodiment) that outputs performance data that indicates the performancelevel of the particular player.

While the foregoing has been with reference to a particular embodimentof the invention, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the artthat changes in this embodiment may be made without departing from theprinciples and spirit of the invention, the scope of which is defined bythe appended claims.

1. A method for evaluating a live instrument performance, comprising:providing a set of arrangement performance data, the set of arrangementperformance data further comprising a plurality of arrangement datapoints wherein each arrangement data point further comprises a note anda time tag associated with each note; receiving a sequence of liveinstrument performance data points, wherein each live instrumentperformance data point has a note and a time tag; determining, for aparticular arrangement data point having a particular arrangement noteand a particular arrangement time tag, if any live instrumentperformance data points in the plurality of live instrument performancedata points have a note equal to the particular arrangement note and atime tag that is within a time window around the particular arrangementtime tag that identifies matching live performance data points; andscoring, if there are the matching live performance data points, thelive instrument performance by comparing the notes and time tags of thematching live instrument performance data points with the particularnote and particular time tag of the particular arrangement data point.2. The method of claim 1, wherein scoring the live instrumentperformance further comprises scoring negatively the live instrumentperformance if no live instrument performance data point has a noteequal to the particular arrangement note or a time tag that is within atime window around the particular arrangement time tag.
 3. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the live instrument performance further comprises alive stringed instrument performance.
 4. The method of claim 1, whereinthe instrument further comprises a guitar, a bass, violin, a banjo, apiano, a voice, a clarinet or a steel drum.
 5. The method of claim 1further comprising determining a periodicity component from the sequenceof live instrument performance data points, converting the periodicitycomponent to a frequency component, and converting the frequencycomponent into a value representative of a note in the live instrumentperformance.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein scoring the liveinstrument performance further comprises comparing a time differencebetween the particular arrangement time tag and the time tag of the liveinstrument performance data point to generate a time difference value.7. The method of claim 6, wherein each arrangement data point furthercomprises a first time window around the particular time tag and asecond time window around the particular time tag longer than the firsttime window, and wherein scoring the live musical performance furthercomprises assigning a first score if the live instrument performancenote matches the particular note and the live instrument performancetime tag is within the first time window and assigning a second scorethat is lower than the first score when the live instrument performancenote matches the particular note and the live instrument performancetime tag is within the second time window but not within the first timewindow.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the time window furthercomprises a time window whose time range is adjusted based on adifficulty level of the instrument performance data or a profile of auser performing the live instrument performance.
 9. The method of claim2 further comprising adjusting a note of one of the live instrumentperformance data points by one or more octaves, comparing the adjustednote to the particular arrangement data point note and scoring the liveinstrument performance positively if the adjusted note is equal to theparticular arrangement note and not scoring the adjusted note if theadjusted note does not match the particular arrangement note.
 10. Themethod of claim 1, wherein receiving the sequence of live instrumentperformance data points further comprises sampling a live instrumentperformance.
 11. An apparatus for evaluating a live instrumentperformance, comprising: a storage unit that stores a set of arrangementinstrument performance data, the set of arrangement instrumentperformance data further comprising a plurality of arrangement datapoints wherein each arrangement data point further comprises a note anda time tag associated with each note; a computing device coupled to thestorage unit, the computing device having an instrument interface thatis capable of receiving a sequence of live instrument performance datapoints, wherein each live instrument performance data point has a noteand a time tag; and the computing device further comprising a game unithaving a scoring unit that determines, for a particular arrangement datapoint having a particular arrangement note and a particular arrangementtime tag, if any live instrument performance data points in theplurality of live instrument performance data points have a note equalto the particular arrangement note and a time tag that is within a timewindow around the particular arrangement time tag that identifiesmatching live performance data points, and that scores, if there arematching live performance data points, the live instrument performanceby comparing the notes and time tags of the matching live instrumentperformance data points with the particular note and particular time tagof the particular arrangement data point.
 12. The apparatus of claim 11,wherein the scoring unit negatively scores the live instrumentperformance if no live instrument performance data point has a noteequal to the particular arrangement note or a time tag that is within atime window around the particular arrangement time tag.
 13. Theapparatus of claim 11, wherein the instrument further comprises astringed instrument.
 14. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein theinstrument further comprises a guitar, a bass, violin, a banjo, a piano,a voice, a clarinet or a steel drum.
 15. The apparatus of claim 11,wherein the scoring unit further comprises a time window unit thatdefines a first time window around the particular time tag and a secondtime window around the particular time tag longer than the first timewindow, and wherein scoring the live musical performance furthercomprises assigning a first score if the live instrument performancenote matches the particular note and the live instrument performancetime tag is within the first time window and assigning a second scorethat is lower than the first score when the live instrument performancenote matches the particular note and the live instrument performancetime tag is within the second time window but not within the first timewindow.
 16. The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the instrument interfacesamples a user performance using the instrument.
 17. The apparatus ofclaim 11, wherein the computing device further comprises a personalcomputer, a game console, a networked computer or a gaming apparatus.18. A computer readable medium having stored thereon instruction which,when executed by a processor, causes the processor to perform theoperations of: providing a set of arrangement performance data, the setof arrangement performance data further comprising a plurality ofarrangement data points wherein each arrangement data point furthercomprises a note and a time tag associated with each note; receiving asequence of live instrument performance data points, wherein each liveinstrument performance data point has a note and a time tag;determining, for a particular arrangement data point having a particulararrangement note and a particular arrangement time tag, if any liveinstrument performance data points in the plurality of live instrumentperformance data points have a note equal to the particular arrangementnote and a time tag that is within a time window around the particulararrangement time tag that identifies matching live performance datapoints; and scoring, if there are the matching live performance datapoints, the live instrument performance by comparing the notes and timetags of the matching live instrument performance data points with theparticular note and particular time tag of the particular arrangementdata point.
 19. A method for displaying the time and pitch cues to theplayer of a musical instrument performance, the method comprising:providing a representation of a musical instrument having one or moreelements; providing a plurality of note symbols representing a musicalinstrument performance to be played by the player, each note symbolhaving a graphical symbol and a character within the graphical symbolthat represents a position of the musical instrument to be played by theplayer to generate a particular note; displaying the representation of amusical instrument having one or more elements and the plurality of notesymbols traveling across the representation of the musical instrument;and cueing the player to play the particular note when the note symbolassociated with the particular note crosses an element of therepresentation of a musical instrument.
 20. The method of claim 19,wherein each note symbol further comprises an alphanumeric symbol thatspecifies a chord associated with the particular pitch for the notesymbol.
 21. The method of claim 19 further comprising displaying a scoreof the player.
 22. The method of claim 19 further comprising displayinga performance meter that displays the performance of the player.
 23. Themethod of claim 19, wherein displaying the representation furthercomprises displaying a user interface in which a vertical position ofthe note symbol represents a string of the musical instrument, a numberinside of the note symbol corresponds to a fret of the musicalinstrument, and wherein cueing the player further comprises cueing theplayer, when an event of the note symbol traveling in a horizontaldirection and crossing the graphical element occurs, to play the stringrepresented by the vertical position of the note symbol and hold downthe fret of the musical instrument indicated by the number inside of thenote symbol.
 24. A method for changing the difficulty of an instrumentgame, the method comprising: providing an arrangement having a pluralityof notes to be played by a player; determining a level of difficulty ofa game for a particular player; and adjusting the difficulty of thearrangement by changing the numbers of notes in the arrangement to beplayed by the player based on the determined level of difficulty of theplayer.
 25. The method of claim 24, wherein adjusting the difficultyfurther comprises increasing the difficulty of the arrangement by addingmore notes in the arrangement to be played by the player and decreasingthe difficulty of the arrangement by reducing a number of notes in thearrangement to be played by the player.